Alive monitors patients remotely

Just when you thought that Bluetooth technology did nothing more than let you listen to music, carry cellphone conversations, and broadcast GPS navigation instructions wirelessly, think again. An uncelebrated company from Australia is currently working on Bluetooth technology that is smart enough to log and transmit medical observation data to a central networks via a cellphone, enabling your personal physician or doctor to alert you through a telephone call whenever a problem begins to develop such as liver hardening or the possibility of a stroke. Known as Alive, this Bluetooth-enabled device has already been used in recovering cardiac outpatients and proved itself to be extremely useful. Further work is being done to expand the range of products that ultimately hope to make inroads in health monitoring of diabetics, mountaineers, and athletes in training.

The premise of Alive is pretty much simple – health monitoring devices such as heart rate and activity monitors, ECGs, blood oximeters, and blood glucose meters will be equipped with Bluetooth functionality, enabling them to communicate with software on your cellphone as well as log and upload information over to a central Internet server. This information will subsequently be uploaded in real-time via a mobile GPRS connection should your doctor want to keep a close eye over you and your development. Such data can alternatively be saved on-board a device using a flash memory card such as SD and uploaded later at a more convenient time.

Overall, Alive helps relay vital health information to the relevant parties, literally keeping you alive with an advanced warning system. You no longer need to make constant trips to hospitals, but I fear that doctors will be saddled with more information than ever in their work, and this could cause them undue stress as they handle virtual patients (you) as well as patients who are sitting in their waiting rooms at that very moment.